1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, to amusement park rides including roller coasters, and, more particularly, to a roller coaster with passenger vehicles that are adapted to place passengers, facing in a direction of travel (DOT), in a more horizontal or reclined position such that their point of view (or sight line) is generally upward and not forward in the DOT. In this manner, the passengers cannot see approaching turns and drops adding to the excitement and unpredictability of the ride experience.
2. Relevant Background
Amusement and theme parks are popular worldwide with hundreds of millions of people visiting the parks each year. Park operators continuously seek new designs for rides that attract and continue to entertain park visitors. Further, it is often important to build upon or modify existing rides to provide park visitors with new and exciting experiences without the cost or inconvenience of replacing an existing ride with a completely new ride. For example, it is much more desirable for a park operator to reuse an existing track and support structure than to remove these and build a completely new ride as this places a ride out of use for a longer period of time and, during construction, is more disruptive to nearby attractions.
The roller coaster is one of the more common and popular amusement park rides for providing a thrilling ride experience. In a typical roller coaster, the cars or vehicles are not self powered, but, instead, a coaster train of vehicles supported upon a track is pulled up a ramp or lift hill with a chain or cable to a peak of the coaster track. The potential energy accumulated by the rise in height is transferred to kinetic energy as the vehicles are released or dropped and race down the downward slope. Kinetic energy is then converted back to potential energy as the vehicle train moves up again to a second peak after which it then falls at rapid speed. This cycle is repeated throughout the ride until the vehicle train returns to the loading/unloading station. In some coasters, a launch mechanism is used in the place of a lift hill to set the train of vehicles into motion. In still other coasters that are not powered by gravity, each vehicle or train of vehicles is self-powered. In most roller coasters, the rider or passenger is seated in an upright position with their back near vertical and facing the direction of travel (DOT) of the vehicle train along a supporting track. In other cases, a vehicle or the entire seat assembly may be rotated or repositioned after loading to place the passenger in a forward leaning/inclined position to simulate flying.
While thrilling to new riders, there is often a desire that older roller coasters be modified or updated. For example, many roller coasters are 30 years or more old, and the ride experience may not be as thrilling as when the ride was first built. Some of the loss in ride enjoyment is because the coaster riders have ridden the ride so many times that they have become very familiar with the coaster's ride experience. The ride does not change so that riders can almost memorize each drop and curve and the ride may become predictable and less thrilling. Another reason an older roller coaster may experience a drop in rider numbers is that new roller coasters are being built with new design tools that allow the coasters to provide more thrilling rides including more extreme curves, drops, and vehicle rotations about a track.
As a result, many park operators are looking for new roller coaster designs that provide unique and different ride experiences. Preferably, such roller coaster designs would be useful in modifying or retrofitting existing roller coasters such that the existing track and associated structure could be used in the new ride. Further, it is desirable that the ride designs are configured for loading/unloading of passengers in conventional ways, such as with the riders being seated in a generally upright position.